The Unfair Application of Inconsistent Standards

Being a mixed race person myself, this Suarez issue has generated conflicting thoughts at times in my mind.
Even now, in checking the after-match reports from the Oldham FA Cup game earlier this evening, I find myself reading about another 'possibly racially related' incident that may, or may not have happened during the game. I'll state this now : too many people of all origins are too quick to play the race card. It is something I'd be extremely careful about, and even reluctant to do personally, but so often it seems - that for some, especially among those who are not intelligent, playing the race card can be an easy way out of having to deal with their own problems and faults.

Now dont get me wrong; I know that. racism still exists; It can occur in explicit ways. For example, recently at a night club, just as I was going in, a white dude who wasn't let in by the bouncers exclaimed ''Why cant I get in? Even black people are getting in!''. For me that incident felt more insulting than if someone had called me a n****r, and i wanted to start a fight, but the bouncers held me back.
But also racism occurs institutionally; via non-vocal but more powerful and often sinister or covert means.
However much the issue of race may or may not confer on the black person an advantage, it is usually assumed that the black person wont be racist or cant be racist to a white or Asian person - which in my opinion is untrue.

In this recent case, it seems evident that Evra should have been taken to task over his offensive initial comments with regard to Suarez's ethnic origin - and he wasnt. At the same time however, during the same disciplinary procedure, comments made by Suarez were deemed offensive using the 'balance of probability' as a standard for establishing guilt.
It seems unfair and inconsistent that Evra's comments were not handled in, or assessed in the same way as Suarez's.

I personally believe that Suarez might have been trying to wind Evra up, but that he didn't intend any racial slur at all, in any way.
The way the FA handled the case, suggests that they wanted a scapegoat in the political aftermath of the comments made by Blatter on the subject of racism in football, and that their final verdict wasnt the most objective at all, being based instead on a desire to react politically to that.

It's in that regard, that I feel suarez and LFC have been treated very unfairly.

(Contributor: Samuel, Westmeath, Ireland)